advice on maintaining sharp edge on knife

first off, I hope all is well with everyone here. it's been a while, I've been lurking more than posting in the past few years.

I've gotten into cooking in the past two years, and recently I've been practicing sharpening my cheap kitchen knives with a nice oilstone it roughly about 1200 grit, which is fine for me. It took a while, but I think I've finally gotten it down. I can get them as sharp as they were the day I bought them.

the trouble is, I don't really know what to do to maintain the sharp edge. Obviously I don't want to hone my knives every month.

Should I be using a strop or a steel? which is better? I think where I get lost is loading a strop with different types of compounds, and then there are a bazillion different steels out there.


any help would be greatly appreciated. thanks

I do not use strops or steels. There are too many pastes, strops, steels, and other items out there, and everyone has a different opinion of which is better.

Every few months when my edge gets dull, I use a Suehiro Rika 5000 to restore the edge.

What type of cutting board are you using?

I use a steel on western knives. The one I have is a large Solingen made butchers steel. It seems to do the trick.

Cheap knives are soft and will not stay sharp as long as a quality knife. You could try a ceramic rod but if you continue to enjoy cooking you should consider upgrading to a better knife.

If you sharpen your knives you are probably ahead of 50% of the population. Jim raises a choice of direction . . do you cook a lot or very little? Are you "Handy" or will you have someone else sharpen your knives.

It is all up to you. The harder steels take more effort to sharpen and their edges last better. Softer steel can be brought to a fine edge quicker than the harder steel.

I've started stropping on balsa sprayed with a diamond spray. The ceramic rod has sat. Granted I'm sharpening more knives now and have the stones wet and ready so it is nothing to do a few strokes with each knife on the stones...

I cook every day. Maybe I'll get a nicer chef's knife later this year. Is there a special type of steel I should use after honing on a 1200 grit stone? I'm afraid of using a steel that will just make the knife duller as opposed to refining the edge.

A steel simply straightens the wire edge you created with the stone. Another option is stropping after sharpening to remove that burr/wire edge. The softer and cheaper the steel the harder it is remove. Its a catch 22 situation with cheaper knives in regards to edge maintenance. A ceramic rod is a better option if you are not interested in upgrading your knife or spending some cash on diamond sprays and strops.

Get a good steel, like an oval Henkels! I've been stoning my kitchen knives for easily over 35 years and stones are best for edge setting. The thing is you can't just stop in the middle of food prep or presentation carving and go at your stones. Not only time consuming but impractical, plus if serving guests no one wants to see you take your chef knife to stone and carve their serving after. When used properly a good steel isn't removing all that metal stones remove, they merely realign the feathers along the blade edge that get rolled over hitting the cutting surface. I mention oval steels because the wider sides have more surface area making them more efficient than rounds, although I still use a 12" Henkels round without problems. An example: You've cooked a wonderful roast or turkey, guests seated waiting to be served. You grab your carver only to find it's not even slicing the skin. A few strokes along steel and you'll be carving like a surgeon, barely skipping a beat! *NOTE: Always wipe edge before cutting! Even though knife steels are meant for realignment some edge material can still become loosened or dislodged and you reamly don't need to add metal to your food no matter how small. Cutting and slicing vegetables too a steel comes in handy. Lost count of times I've sliced say an onion, rinsed blade and went at say tomato and knife couldn't slice skin. A few whisks over my steel and I can cut same tomato paper thin! Like someone mentioned steel hardness/quality makes a big difference but regardless a good steel properly used will bring an edge back quickly and your knives will last longer too as your not grinding off metal as you'd be doing with a stone.
USE of a STEEL tips: Steel in hand taking slow deliberate strokes at set edge angle, none if that crazy high-speed TV action that's completely show and can actually damage, just move like you're slicing off a thin layer of steel just as you would on a stone. The lines on a steel run parallel, keep blade at slight angle and slice across, one side then the other, sometimes running backwards pulling edge over helps if edge is heavily feathered then back to a few follow up slices. Steels like stones don't last forever. Although harder than most knife steels there are exceptions where knife blade is harder than steels so they'll wear faster and need replacement sooner. Don't buy diamond steels unless sharpening ceramic knives or repairing badly damaged edge, they cut too aggressively for general edge maintenance and like stones remove material.
Get a good steel, you'll save a ton if time and your blades will not only always be sharp they'll last longer too! I guar an tee!

A couple of points not related to sharpening but important for keeping a knife sharp:

1) Don't use glass cutting boards. Wood, bamboo or plastic cutting boards won't dull your knife as fast as glass will.

2) Don't keep your knives in a drawer. Keep them in a block or in a knife slot so that you don't have the blades bumping into other stuff in the drawer and knocking the edge off.

For sharpening, I've used wheels and stones, but I think the Spyderco Sharpmaker does a fine job in a pinch.

+1 on getting a high quality steel. Practice your technique on a cheap knife that you've sharpened. There are a few ways to use a steel, but I find that the downward stroke from the blade heel to the tip, while using a lot of "wrist action" is the easiest way to go.